Continent Online
is a secret project VRMMORPG created by the company Argus for the Nerve Gear with Kayaba Akihiko as the development director. Unlike SAO however, Continent Online was never intended to be publicly released. Background Like «Sword Art Online», «Continent Online» was a VRMMORPG that had been in development for years under the watch of Kayaba Akihiko. However, the game itself had many issues keeping it from being publicly released to consumers. Years before when the first closed beta for «Sword Art Online» was released, «Continent Online» was discontinued and left to be scrapped. Sometime later, a gaming company that had been working in conjunction with Argos were able to find the data on the discontinued «Continent Online» and began editing the game, trying to solve the issues that Kayaba Akihiko could not. Believing that they succeeded, on August 3rd in the year 2022; (the same year that «Sword Art Online's» closed beta released) «Continent Online's» closed beta was also released world wide. Naturally, this caused an uproar within the company of Argos who declared that it was their design but without any source of evidence, could not prove that the game was developed by them (Continent Online structure and format where completely different than SAO's). Eventually, a company known as High Jax branched off from Argos and took full control of the servers of «Continent Online» and was well recieved by the market. With the successful review of the game, High Jax closed the beta and began preparing for the game to be officially released. A month later, on November 6th in the year 2022; «Continent Online» was officially released to the market and sold over 10,000 copies during it's first few hours of being released. Due to the incredibly high amount of players logging in, High Jax believed that their servers were too small to house all of the players and bought out more space that required the game to be updated. This proved to be a fatal mistake as Kayaba Akihiko had predicted as during the next login sequence of the game when thousands of players began logging in, the servers malfunctioned during the update, locking the Nerve Gear auto defense system and not allowing any of the players to log out. In a cruel twist of fate, on that same day «Sword Art Online» experienced a similar phenomenon except that instead of it being a server sided error, Kayaba Akihiko had intentionally locked the players inside the game. This would lead to the downfall and eventually bankruptcy of Argos along with High Jax after several parents sued the companies due to the deaths of their children because they tried to remove the helmet off of them. System The game operates similar to most MMORPGs with a level system and eventual skill mastery with some limits placed on it. The entire game is monitored and maintained by a system called Cardinal which self-corrects any problems. While the Continent Online mainframe is capable of incredible graphical and rendering capacities, it does not actually render the entire environment in full detail unless a certain region is specifically observed by a player. Like SAO, CO uses a «Digital Focusing System», which brings out the finer details of an object only when a player shows interest and focuses their visual field on it. This reduces the strain on the mainframe processor, which, despite its high performance power, is incapable of rendering all marginal details of the environment simultaneously. This effectually produces the illusion that the SAO along with CO are graphical and VR experience is incredibly detailed. Environment Continent Online has a setting that takes place in a fantasy world that incorporates different mythologies in the format, giving players the experience of an "Anime" character. In terms of islands and locations, the realm of Continent Online is known as «Sebuto» (Sebun meaning seven, while shoto meaning island) and like it's name suggests, the world is made up of Seven immensely large continents; each having its own unique environment, set of monsters, and even weather. Among these continents are smaller islands that are controlled by NPC's and their respective kingdoms. The Continents As stated above, Sebuto houses exactly seven primal islands that make up the majority of the world. Travel between continents is possible by various methods, such as boarding the «S.S Explorer» that passes between islands depending on the distance from one to the other. Some travels may take only a few days while others may take weeks. The Seven Continents were all named after mythological creatures and house monsters that are related to that myth, along with that respective element: *«Cyclops» - The Continent located to the far east and is named after the mythical one eyed giant. *«Leviathan» - The Continent located to the north east and is named after the mythical seven headed water snake. *«Cerberus» - The Continent located in the center and is named after the mythical three headed dog that guards the gates to hell. *«Bahamut» - The Continent located far north and is named after the mythical humanoid dragon that can command the sky. *«Gorgon» - The Continent located to the far west and is named after the mythical snake woman that can turn people to stone. *«Sphinx» - The Continent located in the mid west and is named after the mythical human/lion hybrid that can control the wind. *«Behemoth» The Continent located far to the south and is named after a mythical dragon beast that make the heavens tremble. Global Setting The seven continents that make up the world of Sebuto all have their own unique themes and settings and are widely different from each other. For example, the «Cyclops» continent is mostly covered in mountains, forests, grasslands, and has old medieval styled towns; in comparison the «Sphinx» continent is quite urban in its interior and has floating islands and looks much more civilized. Seasons and Weather CO follows a «Sebuto Standard Time» system and divides the twelve month year into the four seasons: *«Months of Spring» (March > May) *«Months of Summer» (June > August) *«Months of Fall» (September > November) *«Months of Winter» (December > February) Physical Surroundings Unlike in Sword Art Online, physical surroundings such as houses, buildings, and monuments can be destroyed but require a high skill level of STR (Strength) in order to do so. There are no such things as «Immoral Objects» in Continent Online and it is because of this that Kayaba Akihiko would eventually lead to the decision of declaring the game unfit to play. Because Immortal Objects are not valid in the game, this allows players to destroy their surrounding with their skills if used in conjuction with high enough stats. These objects however will be automatically repaired after a certain amount of time has passed unless heavily damaged, in which case it would require rebuilding by either an NPC or a player with an almost maxed «Craftsmanship» skill. Like SAO, Continent Online follows the same rules on Durability and uses the 100 % method, where by doing several dungeons and quests, the durability of a player's equipment will decay and eventually break if it reaches 0. In order to repair broken equipment, it must be taken to a repair merchant (NPC) to be fixed, albeit it costs a payment of Doru (meaning "Dollar" in Japanese) that depends on the «Item Level» and «Item Grade». Gameplay Initiation and Character Creation Like «Sword Art Online», initiating the boot sequence of «Continent Online» is done by stating, "Link Start!" after powering-on NerveGear hardware. A brief few seconds of tunnel-vision colors are seen while the NerveGear intercepts signals from the gamer's brain, before the powerup screen is seen. A pre-game status check then confirms the link connection of the five senses: touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Upon logging on, a language-select is prompted, and then the login screen. After a welcome screen, a bright light ensues and the gamer can begin creating their character. A load up screen will appear before the player that will welcome them to the game and go through the character creation process. A tunnel of different physiques, hair styles, and eye colors will appear before the player in a white void where they will select how they will want to appear in the game. After determining these variables, the player is then given the choice of selecting which «School» to choose from the four starting Schools available. The four starting schools available to all players are: *«Brawler » - Front line fighters that dish out high DPS and can also act as tanks during battle. . Weapons Available: Bare Fists/Legs *«Ranger » - Back row fighter that excel at using their keen sight to provide support to their comrades. Weapons Available: Bows *«Warrior » - Marching on the field with their blades, Warriors excel at using their speed and high out put of damage to lay down the hurt on their foes. Weapons Available: Swords *«Magician » - Enchant your enemies death with the power of the Mages who can either summon natural disasters to aid them in battle or use their support magic to heal others. Weapons Available: Staffs Once the player has selected the school he or she prefers to play as, the game will automatically initiate the «Preference» system that will take in the character's preferences in clothing and match them in clothing in their selected school. Due to this system, an entire group of players that are «Warriors» may all end up wearing completely different clothing. FInally, to complete the character creation sequence; a full scale view of «Sebuto» will appear before the player and will ask which continent they would like to begin in. Because each «Continent» is not biased towards the level of any player, there is no advantage of selecting any of the continents. However, «Behemoth» is a "locked" continent that cannot be accessed until a player reaches Level 70. Basic Game Interface Visual Interface In a player's display, without accessing any skills, one can see several interfaces. The health bar is located on the upper left corner of one's field of vision. It displays the health of the player, their MP guage, their Chi gauge (for Brawlers and Warriors), their name, numerical HP (8120/8120), their school, and level. It also shows the heath and names of all other members one's party in a smaller bar. A clock displaying Sebuto local time can be seen in the bottom left corner of the visual field. A Color Cursor can be seen over every NPC, monster, and player in the game. This cursor is either green (for players), orange (for players with criminal infractions), yellow (for NPCs), or various shades of red (monsters). During battle, the health bar of monsters can be seen around the targeted enemy, as well as the name of the monster. Bosses typically have multiple health bars. As for a monster that level is too far apart, health bars of that monster will be unable to see and instead indicated with 'unknown'. (Quoted from SAO Wiki ) Touch Interface Players can interact with the environment by tapping various key objects (door knobs, items, etc.). Doing so either performs the default function, or brings up a floating dialogue that has several options, similar to the "right-click" on a PC. In Continent Online, the touch interface is basically identical with Sword Art Online's and simplifies the process in which normal actions can be used. For exmaple, while it woul take around ten seconds to grab a piece of bread and apply butter on it, in CO just by lightly tapping on the bread along with the butter, the system recognizes the action and applies it instantly. Main Menu Window Like SAO, CO uses the same Main Menu interface and allows any player to acces it by placing any able hand into the air and swiping down. This will bring up the Main Menu which has a gray outline box color along with white text. There are five category options: inventory, social, communication, navigation, and settings. The right screen has three sub-menus: *'Inventory' **'Equipment' ***'Torso:' Any equipped Torso classed items are placed here. ***'Legs:' Any equipped Legs classed items are placed here. ***'Footwear:' Any equipped Footwear classed items are placed here. ***'Gloves:' Any equipped Gloves classed items are placed here. ***'Costume': Unlike the other pieces of equipment that are divided into five, Costumes belong in one category and all pieces of the costume are counted as one. **'Accessories: ' ***'Necklace:' Any equpped Necklace classed items are placed here. ***'Earrings:' Any equipped Earrings classed items are placed here. **'Items:' Any and all items that aren't equipment are placed in here, such as Potions, Food, Ingredients, etc.. **'Skills:' Skills belonging to the player are available here and can be used either by accessing the Skills sub-menu or by «Voice Activation» **'Familiars:' If a player comes across a «Familiar Monster» and captures one with the «Dual Stone», the familiar will be stored in here and can be summoned via saying "Awaken" followed by the familiars name. *'Social' **'Friend List:' A list of all the players added friends can be viewed here. **'Party' ***'Create:' The option of creating a temporary party. ***'Invite:' The option of inviting a player to a party by name (commonly used when a player is not nearby) ***'Disband:' The option to dissolve the party. **'Guild' ***'Invite': When having the authority to invite members, this option becomes available. ***'Rank:' The option to freely change the rank of any player you see fi. ***'HQ Transport:' The option to teleport to the Guild HQ's. ***'Withdraw': The option to either pass on leadership to another player or leave the guild. If a guild master chooses to leave the guild, the guild will automatically disband. *'Communication' **''' Befriend:' The option of adding a player to your Friend List. **'Trade:' The option of allowing a trade to occur between another person. **'Duel:' The option to challenge a player to a duel, where the duel will only begin if the other play accepts. **'Propose:' When a player purchases the «Sky Ring», this option becomes available. *'Navigation''' **'World Map:' Whether in town or out in the fields, the option of seeing the world map of Sebuto can be viewed here. **'Field Map:' When in a field, the option of seeing the entire field along with different players can be viewed here. **'Dungeon Map:' When in a dungeon, the option of seeing areas that you've explored can be viewed here. **'Quests:' Quests that are currently in progress, quests that have been completed, and quests that are nearby can be viewed here. *'Settings' **'Options:' The option that allows to change the players preferences such as angle movement, language translation, and calibration weight can be found here. **'Help:' The option of looking through in game guides provided by the system can be viewed here. **'Logout:' The option of logging out of the game can be viewed here. However, this feature has been removed in Continent Online. Equipment Equipment in CO is classified under many categories and are divided into different layers. The system designed over thousands of different and unique pieces of armor and equipment. As an added bonus, the «Costume» feature that was recently added gave players a much happier choice of clothing as they were dissatisfied with wearing some of the equipment armor. With this new feature, it will allow players to wear clothing to their liking while still recieving the stats from the armor they wear. Even costumes that resemble modern day outfits can be found, such as a player wearing a school uniform. Classification Each piece of equipment has a «Classification» that determines how rare and powerful that equipment is. For example, a «Divine» classed item will usually have bonus between +21 to +30 and can go up against Dungeon bosses without losing much durability, whereas a «Common» piece of equipment will most likely break after and sometimes even during the dungeon. Needless to say, higher classified items are incredibly rare to find and will require the completion of their a dangerous quest or victory over a «Field Boss»/«Dungeon Boss». It is also highly recommended to all players that they carry multiple copies of their weapons due to the high % chance of having it being destroyed admist battle. Though, many players have found that the higher leveled they become, the more diffucult it becomes to carry multiple copies of their rare weapons and instead choose to raise the durability. The quality of items go as followed: *'Common:' *'Elite:' (+1 to +10) *'Superior: '(+11 to + 20) *'Divine:' (+ 21 to +30) *'Holy: '(+31 to +40) *'Majestic: '(+41 to + 49) *'Legendary:' (+50) Level System Skill Points Like SAO, CO uses a basic level system that will determine the strength and abilities of a player. Once a player has accumulated enough experience points, their icon will flash and they will be enveloped in a bright light that will fade after a few seconds, signifying that their level has increased. With each level gained, three «Skill Points» are acquired and can be placed into the various different types of skills that become available to the user. CO also houses an almost unlimited amount of Skills that are either free to purchase or have to be unlocked by a «Hidden» Quest. The Skill Level limit for every skill is 100 that requires the user to keep track of which points to put in before they reach the maximum level. Players will usually specialize in a certain amount of skills instead of placing their points around the map to be more effective, while others prefer a balance and actively hunt for Skill Quests. Stats A feature in CO that comes during a players creation sequence is the «Stat» placing where each level you obtain five stat points to place in several attributes, such as: *'STR:' An attribute that determines the physical strength of a player. *'DEF:' An attribute that determines how resistant the player is to damage. *'AGI:' An attribute that determines how fast the player can activate their attacks. *'STA:' An attribute that determines how many quests a player can complete a day. Combat Parameters Continent Online follows the same formula of Parameters in terms of SAO. Several factors go into the calculation of damage in Continent Online. Among them include the efficacy of hits (a direct hit as opposed to a scratch), the skill level of a player, the Sword Skill used, and the weapon's stats. Weapons have the following enhancement parameters that determine stats: Sharpness, Quickness, Accuracy, Heaviness, and Durability. When a weapon is given to an NPC or player smith to upgrade, bonuses such as +1 or +2 are appended select categories. Players use an abbreviated notation to describe the effective bonuses on a weapon. «1A2H1D» for example, has +1 Accuracy, +2 Heaviness, and +1 Durability. On a regular basis, these parameters cannot be seen unless a weapon is «Appraised». Selecting a weapon will only show its name and its aggregate bonuses (the sum of all enhancement parameters). (Quoted from SAO Wiki ) Status Effects Status Effects, like many MMORPGs, play an important role in combat. Many attacks have a random chance of dealing status effects. They are generally not curable, unless the appropriate Crystals are used. Most status effects expire after a set period of time. (Quoted from SAO Wiki ) Monster Battle Mechanics One of the biggest differences between SAO and CO is the addition «Magic» in the game that all players can use, but only «Magicians» may specialize in magical use. Players mainly fight using the «School» skills that were awarded to them when they first created their character and can unlock more along the way of leveling up. Skills are divided up into different categories: *'Active Skill:' Low end skills that while may not be powerful, have low «Cast Times» and short «Cooldowns» which allow players to recast them efficiently. *'Special Skill:' High end eskills that are much more powerful than Active Skills but also have high «Cast Time's» and long «Cooldowns»; making them hard to recast efficiently. *'Support Skill:' A unique type of skill that can be cast to boost a player's parameters. This also includes parties and even raid groups. *'Unique Skill:' A new addition to the game that was added recently. Each player is assigned a «Unique Skill» that only they can use and are one of a kind. The system generates it at random and based on the player's school, a skill that will compliment their style of battle. *'Hyper Skill:' The most powerful type of skills available to players that complete the «Hyper Quest». *'EXE Skill': Another new addition to the CO franchise that was well recieved during the beta testing. If a player obtains a «Skill Notebook», they can "record" certain actions in sequence and save it as a Skill to use. Though, there are many restrictions and not all movements can be recorded, along with the fact that the skill will be given a star quality depending on the diffuculty in performing the move. Players who already have combat experience before playing CO have an advantage against ordinary human beings. There's a definite different between using a skill and mastering a skill that seperates the beginners from the experts. Anyone can activate a skill and use it too attack what's in front of them, which alot of beginners do. However, they fail to realize that skills in the game are based on the concept of actual battle in real life. Using your most flashy skills and letting yourself become vulnerable can prove to be fatal as there's no guarantee that your attack will hit and even if it does hit, monsters with enough resistance can shrug off the attack and charge towards you; leading to players panicking and forgetting to dodge and losing their health. Mastery over a skill will result in better judgment and the usage of skills only when necessary after observing and figuring out how the monster attack patterns. Defeating a monster brings up a Congratulations screen with a summary of results: EXP gained, Doru gained, and Items dropped. Distribution of loot occurs automatically, and Foru is automatically divided evenly between the party/raid members while items are placed in the inventory of the person who receives it. Unlike SAO, CO uses a «Announcement» system to let players know when certain bosses/raids have been cleared and often times can record those battles that can be watched via «Lacrima Screen» in towns recording the event. Just like SAO, dealing the «Last Attack» on a boss will produce a rare reward. (Quoted from SAO Wiki ) Party Battle Mechanics While in SAO it is more efficient to battle in parties and groups, in CO solo players are rarely seen due to the danger level of the game. Because the game relies more on a player's adaption to their «School», naive players who believe they can solo the game using only their predetermined skills are doomed to fail and have led to many in game deaths. The «Switch» feature does not exist in CO and rather, players themselves have to plan for perfect timing and coordinate their moves before and during battle. This is one of the main reasons why four schools were introduced that balance the party system, with having two front line fighters («Brawler» and «Warrior») dishing out the most DPS while the long range support («Ranger» and «Magician») provide back up in the group. While the maximum number of players in a party is six in SAO, the maximum of players in a party in CO is eight. This allows for two more players to join in and allows a bigger group to explore and train together. Player vs. Player Combat Continent Online uses the same mechanics for PVP as SAO but includes the «Coliseum » arena that hosts dueling tournaments and events for all players to participate in. Unauthorized combat can be initiated by simply striking another player intentionally. This will render the aggressor's cursor icon as orange, which is visible to everyone for several hours (repeated offenses will render a player's cursor permanently orange). While anyone can be challenged in unauthorized combat, such player vs. player battle cannot occur in safe zones. Attacking a player in a safe zone will not decrease HP, but the recoil and impact of Sword Skills can be felt. Authorized combat is essentially dueling. It is done by requesting permission from another player to engage in a duel. There are several different duel modes, which vary conditionally by concluding after the first clear blow, after HP decreases by one half, after a period of time, or death. Attacking someone during a duel will not turn any participant's cursors to orange. (Quoted from SAO Wiki ) Trivia Notes References Category:Virtual Reality Category:VRMMO Category:Universe and Technology Category:Continent Online